Haggai

It was the second year that Darius was king. On the first day of the sixth month, a message from the LORD came through the prophet Haggai. It was for Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and for Joshua son of Josedech, the chief priest. The message said:

1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

NoteDarius I ruled the Persian Empire; his second year was 520 BC. Judah was then a small province of that empire, so time is counted by the reign of the foreign king rather than by a king of Judah. The sixth Hebrew month (Elul) fell in late August and September; the first day of any month was the new moon, a holiday when people would already have been gathered. "The word of the LORD came by Haggai" means through him, the prophet speaks as a carrier of a message, not as its author. LORD printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not say aloud. Zerubbabel, the Persian-appointed governor, and Joshua, the high priest, were the civil and religious heads of the community that had returned from exile in Babylon.

2This is what the LORD of the armies of heaven says: These people keep saying, "The time has not come yet. It is not time to rebuild the LORD's house."

2Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.

Note"The LORD of hosts" is a title: the LORD who commands the hosts, meaning armies, in most uses the armies of heaven. "The LORD's house" is the temple in Jerusalem, burned by the Babylonians in 587 BC. Returning exiles had laid a new foundation about 536 BC, but the work stopped, and the site had stood unfinished for roughly sixteen years by the time Haggai spoke.

3Then this message from the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:

3Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4Is it the right time for you yourselves to live in houses with finished wood walls, while this house lies in ruins?

4Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

Note"Cieled" in 1611 English meant panelled, walls lined with fitted wood, not "having a ceiling." Timber had to be cut and hauled or imported, so wood panelling marked a house as finished and expensive. The contrast is between completed private homes and a public ruin.

5So now this is what the LORD of the armies of heaven says: Think carefully about how you are living.

5Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Note"Consider your ways" is literally "set your heart on your roads", take stock of how things have actually been going for you.

6You have planted a lot of seed but harvested only a little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you are never satisfied. You put on clothes, but no one gets warm. And the worker who earns pay puts it in a bag with holes in it.

6Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

NoteCoined money was only beginning to circulate in this period; wages were normally weighed-out pieces of silver carried home in a cloth purse. A purse with a hole in it loses them on the walk back, so the work is done and the pay is gone.

7This is what the LORD of the armies of heaven says: Think carefully about how you are living.

7Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

8Go up into the hills, bring down wood, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it, and I will be honored, says the LORD.

8Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

Note"The mountain" means the wooded hill country around Jerusalem. Building stone could be quarried nearby or salvaged from the ruins, but timber for roof beams, doors and scaffolding had to be cut and carried down, which is the labor being demanded.

9You expected a lot, but look, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of the armies of heaven. It is because my house lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.

9Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Note"I did blow upon it" pictures a wind scattering a heap of threshed grain, so that what was carried home comes to nothing. "Ye run every man unto his own house" describes each person hurrying off to his own building project.

10That is why the sky above you has held back its dew, and the ground has held back its crops.

10Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

NoteIn this region rain falls only in the winter months. The heavy night dew is what keeps crops alive through the dry summer, so dew failing is as ruinous as rain failing.

11I called for a drought on the land and on the hills. It came on the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil, and on everything the ground produces. It came on people and animals and on all the work your hands do.

11And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Note"Corn" in 1611 English meant grain of any kind, here wheat and barley, not maize. Grain, new wine (freshly pressed grape juice, still fermenting) and olive oil were the three staple products of the land, and naming all three was the ordinary way of naming an entire year's harvest.

12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Josedech, the chief priest, along with everyone who was left of the people, obeyed what the LORD their God said and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people were filled with awe before the LORD.

12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Note"The remnant of the people" means those left after the Babylonian conquest and deportations: the survivors and their descendants who had come back to Judah. "Did fear before the LORD" here carries the older sense of standing in awe or dread of a superior, not simple fright.

13Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave the LORD's message to the people. He said, "I am with you, says the LORD."

13Then spake Haggai the LORD’s messenger in the LORD’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.

NoteThe Hebrew word for messenger, mal'ak, is the same word translated "angel" elsewhere; it means anyone sent to carry a message. The doubled phrase "the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message" underlines that both the sender and the words are the LORD's, not Haggai's.

14The LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Josedech, the chief priest, and the spirit of everyone who was left of the people. They came and started work on the house of the LORD of the armies of heaven, their God.

14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

15This was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

15In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

NoteTwenty-three days after the first message of verse 1, still within the same sixth month, around late September 520 BC. The gap covers the gathering of workers and materials.